Inhomogeneities on the surface of 21 Lutetia, the asteroid target of the Rosetta mission

TL;DR

This study used visible spectroscopy to analyze surface inhomogeneities of asteroid 21 Lutetia, revealing spectral variations that suggest compositional differences and surface heterogeneity, aiding in understanding its nature before the Rosetta fly-by.

Contribution

It provides new spectroscopic evidence of surface inhomogeneities and spectral features on Lutetia, enhancing knowledge of its composition and surface structure.

Findings

Detected spectral features at 0.47-0.48 and 0.6 microns.

Observed spectral slope variations across rotational phases.

Identified possible surface inhomogeneities such as craters or albedo spots.

Abstract

CONTEXT: In July 2010 the ESA spacecraft Rosetta will fly-by the main belt asteroid 21 Lutetia. Several observations of this asteroid have been so far performed, but its surface composition and nature are still a matter of debate. For long time Lutetia was supposed to have a metallic nature due to its high IRAS albedo. Later on it has been suggested to have a surface composition similar to primitive carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, while further observations proposed a possible genetic link with more evolved enstatite chondrite meteorites. AIMS: In order to give an important contribution in solving the conundrum of the nature of Lutetia, in November 2008 we performed visible spectroscopic observations of this asteroid at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG, La Palma, Spain). METHODS: Thirteen visible spectra have been acquired at different rotational phases. RESULTS: We confirm the presence of a narrow spectral feature at about 0.47-0.48 micron already found by Lazzarin et al. (2009) on the spectra of Lutetia. We also find a spectral feature at about 0.6 micron, detected by Lazzarin et al. (2004) on one of their Lutetia's spectra. More importantly, our spectra exhibit different spectral slopes between 0.6 and 0.75 micron and, in particular, we found that up to 20% of the Lutetia surface could have flatter spectra. CONCLUSIONS: We detected a variation of the spectral slopes at different rotational phases that could be interpreted as possibly due to differences in the chemical/mineralogical composition, as well as to inhomogeneities of the structure of the Lutetia's surface (e.g., the presence of craters or albedo spots) in the southern hemisphere.